UK to use facial recognition to track and deport illegal immigrants
The Home Office will run live facial recognition (LFR) deployments within the United Kingdom to search for migrants who are lawfully sought for deportation orders or court warrants.
The policy, which was recently detailed to the public, marks instances in which LFR could be used to support the enforcement of immigration decisions and court orders related to civil immigration offences.
LFR technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to compare a live camera feed of faces against a predetermined watchlist in real time.
Until now, LFR has been used by police to target those guilty of criminal offences, scanning the public’s faces at places such as tube stations to check them against a predetermined watchlist of wanted offenders.
The Home Office has now expanded the application of the technology to searching for people who have outstanding deportation order or court warrants, or who are actively sought for enforcement or prosecution.
The government said the following individuals may be included on an LFR watchlist for immigration enforcement:
- Persons subject to an extant Deportation Order;
- Persons wanted on a UK court warrant for an immigration-related offence;
- Persons actively sought for immigration enforcement or removal action, who have failed to comply with immigration conditions of entry or stay or lawful directions, and where their location cannot reasonably be achieved by less intrusive means
Places where these live facial scanning cameras are likely to be deployed include transport hubs and other areas where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic, major public events, and ports of entry and connected travel routes.
The Home Office said members of the public are not required to cooperate with having their image captured, and added that no enforcement action would be taken solely on the basis of an LFR alert.
It said that LFR used for immigration enforcement would comply with all the applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and that it would aim to build public trust and confidence in the use of live facial recognition technology.
